Unity Workshop Probes Future
Episcopal News Service. March 20, 1980 [80095]
The Rev. Donald E. Becker
SEATTLE -- More than 300 Protestant, Anglican and Roman Catholic ecumenists met here March 10-13 in one of the broadest and longest-lived ecumenical gatherings in the United States -- the seventeenth annual meeting of the National Workshop on Christian Unity.
With its origin in an April, 1963 meeting of the National Council of Catholic Men, the ecumenical program that has developed into the National Workshops came from the concerns of the Second Vatican Council, which encouraged the sharing of ideas and experiences among Roman Catholic diocesan directors of ecumenical work. Very quickly it became an annual meeting with non-Roman Catholic participation, which is seen as a key factor in the success of the Workshops.
The National Association of Diocesan Ecumenical Officers (NADEO) of the Roman Catholic Church also developed from the Workshops as did the Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers organization (EDEO) which now meets annually at the same time as the National Workshops.
In the Seventeenth National Workshop, the undercurrent of concern seemed to lie in the question, "Can the movement towards unity of Christians survive society's mistrust of bigness, the unknown, and the distant?"
Meeting almost two decades after Pope John XXIII ushered the Roman Catholic Church into the new ecumenical age, and over three decades (going back to the World Council of Churches formation conference in 1948) after Protestants began their national and world councils, the participants convened here when there is real question as to whether unity efforts are at a standstill.
The bulk of the participants, who were national and local ecumenical officers, are committed to unity efforts although in a survey of the members of the Workshop, four out of five felt that there is poor acceptance of ecumenical efforts by the average person in the pew. (See DPS #80096).
Dr. Robert K. Welsh was chairman of the Seventeenth Annual Workshop. He is a member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and is based in Indianapolis, Ind.
Dr. Welsh expressed his views on the state of the ecumenical movement. "You cannot conjure illusions of well being... but the Lord will continue to pull us forward," he said. He noted the progress that has been made including the post-World War II formation of the World Council of Churches (1948); the International Missionary Conference in New Delhi (1961); Vatican II and its effects (following 1962); and the greater voice of the Third World in its call for liberation in the 1970s as well as continued uniting churches and meeting the needs and involvement of minorities in the 1970s.
He is of the opinion that the central problem is, "How do we implement our alleged agreements in something more than evangelism statements, faith and order dialogues, and cooperation?" Most central is implementation. "There is a mighty flowing in the ecumenical movement. The secular press say it is dead. But they misread the flow. Difficulties do exist. But perhaps they mean that we are really in a pre-ecumenical movement. It is a gift of God. It is of God. The Lord will pull us forward, " he concluded.
Dr. Lewis Mudge, chairman of the Consultation on Church Union Ministry Commission, also made observations in a presentation. He noted that discussions fall short of implementation. The 1970 COCU plan for union and unity is dead and nothing has taken its place. The COCU model simply does not exist. "What form might unity take? The ecumenical movement needs concrete images, and structures that can be understood, " he said. The consensus on ministry is fragile but it is a point of some progress. However, it is some way from the much needed recognition of each other's ministries, he felt. Dr. Mudge also looks with optimism on the recent theological consensus which is now in the hands of member churches, and which will be reported back in 1981.
In the search for understanding on the role and work of the ecumenical movement in today's world, the workshop seminars were of considerable help and evoked inspired teaching and response. The seminars were six in all.
The Church and the handicapped: Led by Dr. Harold Wilke, White Plains, N.Y., Director of The Healing Community. This seminar explored what Dr. Wilke called "The Third Eye" . . . the way that and the gifts with which the handicapped may deal with their problems. He asked not for larger amounts of money because this is very expensive and better ways exist for helping. Give, rather, assisting devices that make it possible for the handicapped "to do their thing" in everyday life. Above all, the Churches can help the world understand that there is no shame or sin hanging over the handicapped. It is best to accept them and allow them to be themselves, and not to imply that "someone sinned or this would not have happened. " He told of his own mother who said to him (he has no arms), "You are going to be a person who is useful!" Dr. Wilke said, "From the beginning our Scriptures have affirmed the value of each individual in the sight of God. And this age-old teaching must be renewed." This can be a major contribution of the ecumenical movement.
Ecumenism in the early church: Dr. E. Glenn Hinson, Professor of Church History from Southern Baptist Seminary debunked in a scholarly fashion the myth that there was a time when the church was one (especially a time in the very early church). Dr. Hinson pointed out that many strands of diversity have always been found in the Church and clearly were present even in the Roman Church of the first and second centuries. There was unification around Jesus but no single normative position in the first and second centuries. There were Pauline, Johannine, Judaistic, Hellenistic Christians and variations of all of those from earliest days of the Church. The struggle for unity amidst the pluralism of the early Church came to a head in Pope Victor who tried to create a united Church around the year 200. He sought unity primarily in an administrative way. He centralized the episcopate; firmed statements of tradition; overcame doctrinal differences by discipline or by removal of the dissidents (Marcionites, Montanists, for example); moved the Church from a Greek character and language to a Latin one. But Hinson noted that diversity existed before unity. And the unity later became uniformity. Dr. Hinson encouraged the present model of the World Council of Churches which is unity in reconciled diversity all the while being aware of the pluralism that does exist. "We must allow that one, holy, catholic, apostolic, is present in the divided Church."
Models of Unity: That considerable difference of thought continues in matters of unity was evident in the seminar on models. There was expressed the fear over mergers which would lead to large national churches which in time could break, again, into "truncated denominations without the traditions and ethos of the old denominations." One view espoused fluid lines of denominational structure, with reunion of sister denominations and a wait "for the final mystery of unity in very essence." Another way would be to virtually eliminate denominational lines with diversity in different situations and local covenants drawn that might not be possible on a larger scale. This seminar did show, again, that shared involvement in social issues is not enough, and that some form of structural union is sought. But federated parishes, ecumenical parishes, and covenantal relationships (in which the Episcopal Church is involved in numerous communities in the United States) are not the end. In several of the covenanted relationships, liturgy is shared up to the point of consecration in the Eucharist (an example being the Anglican/Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Apostles in Norfolk, Va., where sharing is found in all parts of the life except in the actual consecration of the elements in the Eucharist). But currently, such efforts are rare. Cooperation in community and social issues is not the end. Shared Eucharist -- "Bring us to that, " said many of the seminar.
Principles and Techniques of Local Ecumenism: The Rev. William B. Cate, President-Director of the Church Council of Greater Seattle, led the seminar. He clearly reflected a common level of local ecumenism -- action in school desegregation, resolving racial-ethnic tensions, fishing rights (a problem in the Northwest), peace issues, civil disobedience, hunger, food problems, mental health, housing, and a variety of social issues may be done in a common framework. People and their churches can be involved on social issues. Fortunately, he felt, social issues are often collectively dealt with, but not matters of faith and order. He suggested living room dialogues for social issues as well as for discussion of faith and order matters and to deal with elements of distrust between denominations. Action and dialogue commend themselves in local ecumenism.
The Ecumenical Movement and the Electronic Church: "The electronic church, so-called," the Rev. Jim Richards stated, "serves lonely people, aging people, and it gets a lot of money and it has a very shallow theology." A revitalization of the use of radio/TV is needed, he claimed. Churches, through the ecumenical efforts, can turn to new techniques to deal with the needs that the "electronic denominations" are pandering to. There is a serious economic problem present in this area of work. It is well known that the broadcasting industry prefers to sell time and the mainline churches, relying on public service needs, are often pushed to early Sunday hours.
Guidelines for responsible ecumenical debate on moral issues: One of the most crowded of the seminars was that on moral issues. The Rev. Charles McCormick, campus minister at the University of Washington and lecturer in medical ethics there, and the Rev. Charles D. Sok, of Pasco, Wash. (a Roman Catholic), presented several approaches to moral problems. Situational ethics, McCormick said, in one way or another, plays a major role as a utilitarian decision-making agent. Actions justify themselves by their goodness or rightness or wrongness and by effects that are observable.
Natural moral law derived from the Gospel under the inspiration of the Spirit, according to Father Sok, is heavily based on an order of nature given by God and reiterated by the Law of God. The basis for decisions in popular morality tends to be situational. "Is it good?" And, "Does it hurt?" On the other hand, in the context he was speaking from, Father Sok referred to principles. Cooly, calmly making decisions on the basis of the categorical imperative may be less common but it is a very viable tradition. The two systems find dialogue difficult. Responsible ecumenical dialogue on matters of moral decisions is a frontier for ecumenism in the view of those attending this seminar.
In discussions and seminars dealing with the current level of ecumenical activity Dr. Mudge, Dean of McCormick School of Theology, observed that there is growth in understanding that pluralistic, varied expressions of faith each have a large measure of validity. The questions of faith and order dialogues now approach the problems, 1) How can an ecumenical confession of faith be formulated and 2) Who is to decide what the valid elements in the varied expressions of faith are -- is it to be a magisterium (supreme authority) or a council (a duly ordered group).
Dr. Cora Sparrowk, lone, Calif., National Officer for Church Women United, spoke to a plenary session and gave her view of the work of CWU and how it is a model for local, regional, and national ecumenism. The 2,000 local units demonstrate a strength in difference, of age, background, ethnic antecedents, economics. Dr. Sparrowk sees it as a means of bringing about one just society. Church Women United can be a "causeway to bridge gaps across age, race, sex, nations...bridges so that truly the Kingdom will come."
Among the interesting comments by other leaders was that of Bishop Remi de Roo of Canada who stated that "Gospel values must be brought to bear on young, old, prisoners; in justice, in family life, in evaluating military and economic policy, and in all walks of life. This the ecumenical movement can do where it is now."
And Frances Maeda, who spoke of the Church and the Asian, remarked that progress has been made, in part through ecumenical efforts, in understanding that ethnic groups need not be phased out -- that oftentimes the 'Western requirements and assumptions" are not meeting the needs and talents of the Asians. . . where they are and the heritage from which they came. "Jesus is the unity, " she said, and we must meet people as they emerge in forms and manners that are meaningful to them.
Throughout the Workshop, it was evident that cooperative works in community and social matters of all sorts have been dealt with effectively by ecumenical groupings. But it appears that for some time to come structural implementation will be a major problem, more so than matters of faith and order which still have work to be done, also.
The Rt. Rev. Arthur A. Vogel, Episcopal Bishop of West Missouri, delivered a major paper at the joint NADEO (Roman Catholic) and EDEO (Episcopal) meeting on March 11. Bishop Vogel addressed the questions of infallibility and indefectibility. On infallibility, he stated that it has never been meant to be or reside in one person, but rather is a conciliar decision tested by time. He plans to circulate the paper among his fellow members of the Anglican/Roman Catholic dialogue for their reactions.
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